Product Description

Gardenias revisits Faith Sullivan¹s most beloved characters from The Cape Ann, taking them from their hometown to new lives and dreams. Arlene has left her husband after he gambled away the money saved to finally build the house of her and Lark¹s Depression-era dreams. As a new life takes shape in San Diego, in a war-time housing project full of neighbours they know little about, Lark wonders if a dream means losing everything of value or finally finding it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1134930 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.09" h x 5.62" w x 8.54" l, 1.00 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Abandoning Depression-ravaged Minnesota and the alcoholic husband who drank away the family savings, Arlene Erhardt moves to California in early 1942 in search of a new life, bringing along her sister Betty and daughter Lark, the too-precocious narrator of this tale of independence, loyalty, hope and crushed dreams. The Erhardts land in a San Diego housing project, where Lark is left alone to sort out her new world while Betty and Arlene work. Though Lark makes a less than credible nine-year old (her habit of reading a dictionary notwithstanding), she endears herself to the reader through her innocence and curiosity.
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From Booklist
Lark Ann Erhardt, her mother, Arlene, and her aunt Betty join the thousands of people migrating to California during the 1940s war years. Her parents' marriage is in disarray, as told in Sullivan's previous novel, The Cape Ann (1988). Arlene and Betty are resolute in their desire to establish new lives for themselves and to find work in the war plants now desperate for workers. Nine-year-old Lark is a keen observer and patient narrator of life's twists and incongruities as she settles in to life in a San Diego housing project with the two women. Always hoping for reconciliation between her parents, Lark is confused by her circumstances but is a resilient child protective of her real and her extended family of new friends. Sullivan fills Lark's world with flawed, complex adults as well as other children. As all children do, Lark learns that some decisions and events are incomprehensible and irrevocably change one's life. Sullivan's leisurely pacing provides a quiet view into Lark's fears, hopes, and growing maturity. Laurie Sundborg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Faith Sullivan¹s books include The Empress of One and What a Woman Must Do. She lives in Minneapolis, MN.